Trump Says the Leader of ISIS is Dead
The BBC reports the claim: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: IS leader ‘dead after US raid’ in Syria. The basic story would seem to be that the Kurds located al-Baghdadi and a US special operations team carried out an assault on his hiding place. Al-Baghdadi was chased down a tunnel by military dogs and when he realized he was trapped he detonated a suicide vest killing himself and three children. One of the dogs was wounded.
Trump admits he told Russia of ISIS raid but kept Pelosi and Schiff in the dark. for their part Russian military throws shade at Trump: We have ‘valid doubts about the reality and success’ of ISIS raid. If Russia knew about the raid they would have been looking for activity in the target area. (It is very possible that they were unable to detect the raid with their available resources and don’t want to admit it to Moscow.)
Colonel Wilkerson deflates ISIS raid: happening ‘in the shadow of impeachment.’ (See Wag the Dog.)
2 comments
I though “Wag the Dog” the moment I saw Trump on TV Sunday morning. Excellent observation.
It is very possible that the US military commanders pushed for the raid as they felt confident in their intelligence on the location and didn’t want to risk losing him in the turmoil over the Turks and Russians moving into the area. The Turks have never considered ISIS to be a threat. The impeachment investigation gave them a “button” to push on the White House.